Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay
| starring = Christian Slater Billy Brown Liam McIntyre Kristin Bauer van Straten Gideon Emery Tara Strong Vanessa Williams | music = Robert J. Kral | cinematography = | editing = | distributor = Warner Bros. Home Entertainment | studio = DC Entertainment Warner Bros. Animation DR Movie (animation service) | released = |2018|4|10|Blu-ray and DVD}} | runtime = 86 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = }} 'Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay' is a 2018 American animated superhero film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The film is directed & produced by Sam Liu, with scripting by Alan Burnett (his last work before his retirement). It is the 31st film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series and a part of the DC Animated Movie Universe. The voice cast includes Christian Slater as Deadshot, Tara Strong as Harley Quinn and Vanessa Williams as Amanda Waller. The film was released digitally on March 27, 2018 and released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 10, 2018. Plot Following Ocean Master's defeat at the hands of the Justice League, Amanda Waller dispatches Task Force X, consisting of Deadshot, Count Vertigo, and the criminal couple Punch and Jewelee, to recover a flash drive containing leaked intelligence from Tobias Whale. The mission succeeds, but Vertigo and Jewelee betray the team and kill Punch. Having become lovers in jail, they plan to copy the flash drive and sell it. But Waller overhears everything through Deadshot's communicator. Waller detonates Vertigo's head bomb and Deadshot mercy-kills Jewelee when Waller prepares to detonate hers as well. In Gotham City, Professor Pyg is kidnapped by Scandal Savage and Knockout for a "patient in need of medical attention". Waller discovers that she is diagnosed with a terminal illness and reassembles Task Force X with a new roster: Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, Copperhead, and Bronze Tiger. Their mission: to find a man named Steel Maxum and retrieve a mystical black card emblazoned "Get Out of Hell Free." Finding Maxum in a male strip club, Task Force X battles Professor Zoom, Silver Banshee, and Blockbuster. The squad escape with Maxum and learn he was Doctor Fate. He explains that the card allows the user to bypass Hell and gain access to Heaven, but it can only be used once. Scandal and Knockout stole the card from the Tower of Fate, which resulted in Maxum being stripped of his title by Nabu. Upon finding Scandal and Knockout's apartment, the team acquires the card, but they are intercepted by Vandal Savage and his men. Savage retrieves the card and shoots the badly wounded Knockout in the head, despite the pleas of her lover daughter, Scandal. As Savage escapes, Zoom places a tracer on his ship. Deadshot visits his estranged daughter Zoe but is forcibly retrieved by Tiger. Next day, Zoom's henchmen kidnap Frost at a gas station. Zoom removes Frost's bomb and convinces her to join him. Zoom lures the Squad into a trap and detonates the bomb. They manage to escape, but Tiger is heavily injured in the blast. Scandal covertly informs Deadshot of Vandal's location, and the Squad infiltrates his lair but are captured. Savage reveals that he had Pyg surgically implant the card into his chest cavity. Zoom and his henchmen attack and remove the card from Savage's body, killing him. Zoom explains that he was killed by Batman in another timeline, but managed to temporarily delay death by using the Speed Force. Frost double-crosses Zoom, killing Silver Banshee and Blockbuster and stealing the card for ransom. Copperhead fights Frost until Waller detonates his bomb and kills them both. Captain Boomerang attempts to steal the card but is incapacitated by Zoom. Tiger battles Zoom, but Zoom slices him multiple times with a small dagger. Tiger, dying from blood loss, uses the last of his strength to cut the fingers holding the card from Zoom's hand. Deadshot then kills the now-cardless Zoom, ensuring his fate in Flashpoint, and gives the card to Tiger, who dies and ascends to Heaven. With only Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang remaining alive in his team, Deadshot gives the now-useless card to the unsuspecting Waller before leaving. Having served his time, Deadshot visits Zoe as a free man. Voice cast Production This film was announced at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 21, 2017. It is the last film that Alan Burnett worked on before his retirement. Tie-in media On March 21, a 12-issue digital comic was released on a weekly basis. Written by Jeff Parker with artwork by Matthew Dow Smith, Agustin Padilla, Stefano Raffaele and Cat Staggs, the story takes place immediately after the events of the film as Amanda Waller is still looking to avoid death. With the Spectre bearing down on her, she enlists Jason Blood a.k.a. Etrigan into her team for their latest mission. Reception Sales The film earned $591,559 from domestic DVD sales and $1,804,811 from domestic Blu-ray sales, bringing its total domestic home video earnings to $2,396,370. Critical response On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88%, based on 8 reviews, and an average rating of 7.2/10. IGN awarded Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay a score of 7.5 out of 10, saying that while not everything in the film worked, it deserves praise for its "sense of humor, willingness to kill off key characters, and exploration of a spiritual subject". WeGotThisCovered.com gave it a 9/10, calling it one of the best DC animated films, praising its writing and fun tone. A Comicsverse review by Chris Zhang notes problems with graphics, but Zhang still calls it the best Suicide Squad film ever, noting it is giving a correct portrayal of the Squad as "a bunch of backstabbing criminals being managed by a backstabbing bureaucrat" instead of a comparatively friendly team like the 2016 film. Notes References External links * Category:2010s American animated films Category:2010s direct-to-video animated superhero films Category:2010s animated superhero films Category:2010s LGBT-related films Category:2010s road movies Category:2018 animated films Category:2018 direct-to-video films Category:American films Category:American LGBT-related films Category:American superhero films Category:Animated superhero films Category:DC Animated Movie Universe Category:English-language films Category:Films produced by Sam Register Category:Films directed by Sam Liu Category:LGBT-related animation Category:Warner Bros. Animation animated films Category:Harley Quinn films Category:Suicide Squad Category:Martyrdom in fiction Category:Hell in fiction